Air crash scenario involves dozen agencies

By Andrea Howry, Lighthouse editor

4:20 PM, Jul 24, 2013

As CMCN Gia Hinh Truong, a student at the Naval Construction Training Center, lies on the tarmac with a "sucking chest wound," the first truck on the scene sprays the "wreckage" of what is supposed to be an E-2C Hawkeye that hit a flock of birds and "crashed" into Hangar 34. The July 11 disaster drill involved emergency responders from all over Ventura County and role-players like Truong — more than 100 people in all. Robert Huether, the installation training officer for Naval Base Ventura County — shown here walking toward the "wreckage" —Êsaid the exercise "went really well, and there were lessons learned."

Photo by Andrea Howry / Lighthouse

CMCN Gia Hinh Truong of the Naval Construction Training Center is taken to the triage area for treatment of his “sucking chest wound.”

Photo by Andrea Howry / Lighthouse

Firefighters approach the “burning” hangar, with realistic effects created by a fog machine.

Photo by Vance Vasquez / NBVC Public Affairs

Personnel from Naval Base Ventura County, many of them from Force Protection and students at the Naval Construction Training Center, meet in the doomed hangar to learn their role in the exercise.

Photo by Andrea Howry / Lighthouse

Firefighters discuss the next step during the exercise drill on the Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, flightline.

Photo by Andrea Howry / Lighthouse

A firefighter sprays down the Mobile Aircraft Fire Trainer that stood in for an E-2C Hawkeye during the July 11 exercise. Behind him are four mannequins that represent four fatalities, all of whom are supposed to be crew members aboard the ill-fated Hawkeye that hit a flock of birds and “crashed” into Hangar 34.

Photo by Andrea Howry / Lighthouse

Loaded down with gear, a firefighter heads toward the “burning” hangar.

Photo by Andrea Howry / Lighthouse

MA1 Christopher Uutela of Naval Base Ventura County, whose script says he is suffering from a piece of shrapnel in his eye, is helped off the tarmac by Federal Fire Capt. John Shearer.

Photo by Andrea Howry / Lighthouse

MASR Josh Ingraham of Naval Base Ventura County grimaces as a firefighter provides emergency treatment to his “burned” leg.

Photo by Andrea Howry / Lighthouse

More than 100 role-players and first responders from a dozen different agencies in Ventura County took part in a disaster drill Thursday, July 11, in which an E-2C Hawkeye was supposed to have hit a flock of birds and crashed into Hangar 34 along the Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, flightline.

“It went really well, and there were lessons learned,” said Robert Huether, the installation training officer for the base and the organizer of the event. “When you’re coordinating a multi-agency response to any event, communications is always a challenge. We did find some areas that need improvement.”

The exercise involved first responders from not only the base, but also Ventura County and the cities of Ventura, Oxnard and Fillmore, plus ambulance crews from American Medical Response, Gold Coast and Life Line.

The Mobile Aircraft Fire Trainer (MAFT) stood in for the E-2C Hawkeye, and mist generated from a fog machine stood in for smoke as the “disaster” unfolded at 1 p.m. Mannequins representing four fatalities were scattered next to the MAFT. Twenty-one role-players — many of them from Force Protection and students from the Naval Construction Training Center (NCTC) — stumbled out of the “burning” hangar. Some had “wounds” created by moulage — plastic prosthetics and makeup.

Master-at-Arms 1st Class Christopher Uutela of NBVC Force Protection staggered around the flightline holding his face. His script called for him to have a one-foot piece of shrapnel in his right eye.

Meanwhile, Construction Mechanic Constructionman Gia Hinh Truong was sprawled next to the hangar with a “sucking chest wound” and Master-at-Arms Seaman Recruit Josh Ingraham had a nasty “burn” on his leg that kept slipping down to his ankle.

“My burn’s falling off,” he mumbled as he pulled it back up under his knee.

School Liaison Officer Monica James, who had volunteered to dole out the moulage, doubled as drama coach.

“Act it up,” she told the role-players. “Screaming and moaning is encouraged.”

As soon as the first responders arrived, firefighters dragged out the hoses and tackled the fire while others tended to the “wounded.” As ambulances and more fire engines pulled up, they performed triage — deciding whose injuries required immediate transport — and carried the most severely wounded by litter to the waiting ambulances.

With 21 injured, they had to keep track of who was going to which hospitals.

The scenes that played out that afternoon were eerily similar to what television viewers had been seeing for days in coverage of the Asiana crash at San Francisco International Airport.

Huether said the timing was pure coincidence and that this exercise had been planned for months.